A to Z of HMP Larkhall
D
D-Wing
Another of Larkhall’s wings. Barry, Gina, Mark, Kevin and Donny were all originally D-Wing POs.
Dawn
As lumpy as the mashed potatoes she dished up behind the servery, Dawn was an extra who got the odd line and who tended to act as a minion for Shell. Acting under Shell’s orders, Dawn stole an envelope with Fenner’s address on it from the PO’s Office (s1ep10), she also rescued Di when the Julies tied her up and locked her in the kitchen store cupboard to stop her sabotaging Crystal and Josh’s wedding (s3ep10).
Dawson, Andy
Julie J’s bastard ex-husband. When she was sent down, he applied for a court order to prevent her from seeing her children and then took them off to live in America.
Dawson, Eddie ‘The Drill’
Julie J’s loathed ex father-in-law. His funeral provided her with the opportunity to see her eldest two children – Martin and Rhiannon – for the first time in years (s2ep3).
Dawson, Martin
Julie J’s eldest son. She last saw him when Lauren Atkins smuggled him in to Larkhall to visit (s2ep3).
Dawson, Rhiannon
Julie J’s daughter. We first saw Rhiannon when Lauren Atkins smuggled her in to Larkhall to visit (s2ep3). Rhiannon later made a shock return to Larkhall, this time on the wrong side of the bars after being sentenced to sixteen days for shoplifting (s4ep5). Both Julies were horrified when they discovered that Rhiannon’s boyfriend – Damian Morrison – had put her on the game and gained revenge by pouring the boiling hot contents of a tea urn over his lap (s4ep6). Rhiannon testified against the Julies at their subsequent GBH trial and her evidence was instrumental in the eight year sentences they received (s4ep13).
Dawson, Sonya
Julie J’s real name.
De-crutching
Exactly what it sounds like: the inmates’ practise of forcibly removing concealed items of contraband (usually drugs) from a fellow prisoner’s person. This punishment was once memorably inflicted on Zandra by Shell and Denny and a family-size tub of margarine (s1ep2). See Crutching.
Dedicated Search Team (DST)
Well hard prison heavies who are trained to search inmates, staff and cells for contraband. They have frightened the life out of many an inmate and screw on G-Wing, including: Nikki (s1ep2), Lorna (s1ep9), Yvonne and Charlie’s solicitor (s3ep4), the whole of G-Wing after the riot (s3ep12) and after Bev’s overdose (s6ep2), and on one occasion, the entire prison in a quest to locate the gun Ritchie Atkins planted in Karen’s handbag (s5ep1).
Denise
Rotund red-band from D-Wing who worked as a cleaner in the Officer’s Club. She smuggled bottled of assorted spirits to Phyl and Bev in exchange for the boxes of cream cakes they wheedled out of Frank, the baker’s delivery man.
Detox
A form of rehabilitation used to treat alcoholism and drug addiction. The process involves abstinence to clear the drug/alcohol from the body, accompanied by social and environmental support during the associated physiological and psychological changes. Zandra went into detox after making a deal with Helen to stay clean in exchange for permission to get married to her fiancé, Robin, in the prison (s1ep3). Janine was persuaded by Lou and Donny to go into detox (s8ep4).
Devlin, Jessie
Denny’s mother, a chronic alcoholic. Denny was taken away by the Social Services at a very young age and didn’t see Jessie again until they were reunited on G-Wing (s1ep6). After getting to know her daughter, Jessie made a valiant effort to stay off the booze. She eventually returned to her old ways (s3ep4) and later died from an alcohol-related illness (s4ep14).
Diamonds
Stolen by Sergei Konchalovsky and secreted in the safe in his suite at the Hotel Americanas in Marbella. While fellow Russian gangster Mikhail tortured Sergei for the location of the diamonds, Phyl and Bev were being sneaked into the suite by a friendly hotel employee. They stumbled across the safe, broke into it and made off with the stones (s7ep9). See Konchalovsky, Sergei
Diary
Kept by Barbara, the Bridget Jones of Larkhall. She used it to record details of the dire prison diet and her observations about her fellow inmates. Despite being warned not to, Barbara couldn’t resist committing coded details of Helen and Nikki’s relationship to paper. Disaster struck when Fenner found the diary, cracked the code and then used it to force Helen’s resignation (s3ep15).
This was the second time Fenner tried to use a diary to get rid of Helen. Shortely before he helped Shell to escape, he ordered her to forge six weeks’ worth of diary entries that accused Helen’s lifers’ regime of being lax. Helen was much too clever to fall for such an obvious attempt to frame her and it was Simon who ended up losing his job (s3ep8).
Dictaphone
A sound recording device that is most commonly used to record speech for later playback, or to be typed into print. Phyl and Bev masterminded the theft of Rowan’s Dictaphone and listened with interest to his observations about his patients. Phyl twigged that Rowan was putting together research for a TV documentary and used the knowledge to blackmail him into transferring her to a cushy private clinic (s8ep2).
“Die Bastard”
Phrase scratched into the paintwork of Fenner’s car by Di after he kicked her out of the marital home (s7ep10). She was caught in the act by the Larkhall CCTV system and the tape became a key piece of circumstantial evidence against her in the police investigation into Fenner’s murder (s7ep11).
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
This is a diagnosis described as the existence in an individual of two or more distinct identities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. DID is understood to be a fairly common effect of severe trauma in early childhood, most typically extreme and repeated physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse. Inmate Angela Robbins developed a second identity called ‘Andy’ after suffering from this type of abuse. Andy was an aggressive, foul-mouthed misogynist who physically attacked both Lou and Pat before Angela’s condition was diagnosed. Rowan wanted to keep Angela at Larkhall for further study, but Lou insisted that she be transferred to a psychiatric unit (s8ep3). See Robbins, Angela.
Dockley, Rita
Shell’s mother. During a mental breakdown, Shell revealed to Karen that Rita had allowed her husband – Shell’s father – to sexually abuse his daughter over the course of many years. Rita looked after Shell’s daughters – Kayley and Dena – until Shell decided to have them taken into care. She didn’t want to run the risk of history repeating itself (s2ep8).
Dockley, Ronan Beckham
Shell’s baby son, born in Larkhall. She hoped that he would grow up to be a “singing footballer” and seemed genuinely besotted with him. He was taken into care when Fenner and Colin falsely alleged that she had tried to smother him. Shell was then transferred to a secure psychiatric unit (s5ep4).
Dockley, Shell
Larkhall’s most illustrious evil bitch in residence. After terrorising her fellow inmates and most of G-Wing’s POs over the course of three series, she escaped to Spain with Denny (s3ep8). Shell was later spotted working in an Amsterdam strip club and brought back to Larkhall (s5ep1) in time to give birth to her son Ronan. After a pimping scheme went wrong, Fenner accused her of trying to smother Ronan and colluded with Neil to have her shipped out of Larkhall to a secure psychiatric unit. (s5ep4)
Read Shell's character profile.
Doctor No-No
The inmates’ nickname for Dr Nicholson because of his reluctance to prescribe anything stronger than paracetemol.
Documentary
Shot by a team from Kickin’ Productions, the ill-fated fly-on-the-wall documentary Lady Lags provided Fenner with the distraction he needed to smuggle Shell out of Larkhall. The fallout was instrumental in Simon’s forced resignation (s3ep7-ep8).
Rowan planned to base a documentary – Women Inside. Mad, Bad or Sad? – on the inmates of Larkhall. He claimed to want to highlight the problems faced by female prisoners, but in reality there was nothing altruistic about Rowan and professional recognition was his only true aim. All of his well-laid plans came to naught when Joy refused to give her consent (s8ep9).
Drugs
Heroin, cannabis, cocaine, crack, speed, ecstasy, crystal meth, tranquillisers... the list goes on and on. All smuggled, stolen, taken and freely available for purchase on G-Wing.
Dunlop, Hannah
Rowan’s wife. Rowan lied to Lou about the status of his marriage, claiming that he and Hannah were separated and in the midst of divorce proceedings. Lou’s sister Vicky later discovered that Hannah was pregnant with twins and that Rowan had absolutely no intention of leaving her (s8ep8). After Vicky later died due to Rowan's negligence, Lou got her revenge by phoning Hannah and telling her exactly what type of man she was married to (s8ep9).
Dunlop, Rowan
A ruthlessly ambitious psychiatrist, Rowan only took the job as Larkhall’s SMO in order to secretly research a television documentary about the inmates. Lou found Rowan hard to resist, and his lies about a disastrous marriage easy to believe. However, when Rowan nearly allowed her sister Vicky to die of a drug overdose, he quickly found out that hell really does hath no fury like a Deputy Governor scorned (s8ep9).
Read Rowan’s character profile.
Dunstan, Robbie
Zandra and Robin’s baby son.
Dunstan, Robin
Zandra’s fiancé. Not content with allowing her to go down for a crime he committed, he also got her pregnant, dumped her for another woman (s1ep3) and then fought her for custody of their newly born son (s2ep1). No wonder he didn’t have the guts to show his face on G-Wing for Zandra’s memorial service (s2ep9)!
Dyer, Michael
The pseudonym Donny used to write love letters to Janine. After discovering that she was pregnant by Donny, Janine span a ridiculous tale, claiming that Michael had left a jam jar containing his sperm at her mother’s grave so that she could artificially inseminate herself during an outside visit (s8ep9). Joy was understandable suspicious, and so in an attempt to support Janine’s story, Donny persuaded his friend Steve to pose as Michael and visit the prison. However, Steve lost his nerve when confronted by Joy and blabbed the truth (s8ep10).